Voltage Controlled Oscillator
What is an oscillator?
An oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces an output waveform without anexternal signal source. The key to oscillator operation is a positive feedback. There is anamplifier where sufficient energy is coupled back from its output to its input. A positivefeedback can be obtained in two ways:
If the output of the amplifier is 180
0
phase shifted from the input, then thefeedback has to produce a 180
0
phase shift as shown below; or Fig-1: Positive feedback, 180
0
phase shift in feedback
If the output of the amplifier is in-phase with the input, then the feedback has tomake no phase shift.Fig-2: Positive feedback, no phase shift in feedback In any case, the output from the feedback network is in phase with the input of theamplifier.
Therefore, depending on the product of the gains of the feedback network and theamplifier, the amplitude of the output signal is determined. The frequency of the outputsignal depends upon the frequency determining circuit in the feedback network.The switch in the above figure illustrates the basic principle of how the oscillator produces an output waveform without any input signal. In Figure 1, the switch S ismomentarily closed, applying an input signal to the circuit. This results in a signal at theoutput from the amplifier, a portion of which is fed back to the input by the feedback network. Then the switch is open, but the circuit continues to oscillate because thefeedback network is supplying the input to the amplifier. The feedback network deliversan input to the amplifier, which in turn generates an input for the feedback network. Thiscircuit action is referred to as
regenerative feedback
and is the basis for all oscillators.An oscillator needs a brief trigger signal to start the oscillations. Most oscillators providetheir own trigger simply by turning the circuit on.
Requirements of Oscillation
The circuit must have
regenerative feedback
; that is, feedback that results in acombined 360°(or 0°) voltage phase shift around the circuit loop.
The circuit must receive some
trigger signal
to start the oscillations.In addition to the conditions stated above, the circuit must fulfill the Barkhausencriterion. This condition states that for an oscillator to work properly, the product of thegain of the amplifier and the attenuation of the feedback network must be equal to one.If the criterion is not met, one of the following occurs:1.If , the oscillations die out after a few cycles.2.If , the oscillator drives itself into saturation and cutoff clipping.These principles are illustrated in the following figures:
Fig-3:
The effects of on oscillator operation.
If , each oscillation results in a lower-amplitude signal being fed back to theinput (as shown in Fig-3a). After a few cycles, the signal fades out. This loss of signalamplitude is called damping. If , each oscillation results in a larger and larger signal being fed back to the input (as shown in Fig-3b). In this case, the amplifier isquickly driven into clipping. When , each oscillation results in a consistentlyequal signal being fed back to the input (as shown in Fig-3c). One final point: Since thereis always some power loss in the resistive components, in practicemust always be just slightly greater than 1.There are many types of oscillator. The main difference in these oscillators is the type of circuit used in the feedback network. An RC or an LC circuit can be used. Some of themost common RC oscillators are Phase-shift, Wien-Bridge. Some common LC resonantoscillators are Colpitts, Clapp, Hartley and Armstrong. If stable frequency is required, acrystal-controlled oscillator is used.A crystal-controlled oscillator uses a quartz crystal to control the operating frequency.The key to the operation of a crystal-controlled oscillator is the piezoelectric effect.Because the topic of interest is a voltage-controlled oscillator, a crystal oscillator will not
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Voltage Controlled Oscillator
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| Upload Date: | 08/05/2009 |
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